Strawberry

I apologize if this comes across as harsh, but it sounds like you are expecting to find a combo without any weaknesses whatsoever, and when some small inconvenience happens that stops you from being a steamroller through missions, you completely abandon the character. If that's the case, I would continue looking at Brutes, because that's probably the closest you'll find to what you are aiming for if you want a melee archetype, but there is 'perfect' combo without any weaknesses. If there were, this game would honestly bore tf out of me. I, for one, enjoy a challenge.

Totally agreed, and I've also used it in these situations, but it's still a very niche power.

Sleep is great for solo, but in groups, you will be lucky if one or two baddies on the edge of the power and slightly away from the center of combat stay slept for even a few seconds. That being said, I take Mass Hypnosis on my Mind Controller and, when the power comes in handy, it does feel like a bit of a gamechanger. For example, if another group is aggroed, a patrol comes, or things turn sour and people are running. Generally speaking, I can go a full day of playing without even using the power though. I just felt I had the room and went for it.

Welcome to the cool kid's squad ❤️❤️ We meet in my parent's basement after middle school and my Mom makes us cookies. We chill af

I won't lie and say there wasn't empath hate back in the day, especially on the forums, but in game I never see empath hate ever. In fact, most teams are incredibly happy to have an empath, even slotted out incarnate teams. Does this really happen to you in game? I could maybe understand on the forums.

I would've liked this on the Martial Assault set instead of the shurikens for ranged. Throw in some dual pistols with the martial melee attacks.

Both Ice and Cold are two sets I would heavily recommend the Corruptor over Defender. I'm not saying it can't work as a Defender, but the defense loss from the shields doesn't really matter since late game most people hit or come close to defense cap anyways. As another poster said, Sleet is the same -res for both Cor/Def, and Heat Loss only slightly less effective as a Corruptor. Meanwhile in Ice, you are playing a set with a rain power that benefits nicely from Corruptor extra damage. A poster above mentioned Scourge doesn't work with Sleet and Ice Storm. I think Sleet they might be correct, which is weird because it should, but I think it does work with Ice Storm. Blizzard for sure triggers it unless something changed that I'm unaware of in a patch on Homecoming. It actually makes Blizzard almost as strong as a Blaster when used by a Corruptor.

My, now slotted-out lvl 50 Kinetic Melee Scrapper ain't got no time for that kinda negativity, bro ❤️❤️ u can't stop the vibin'

That's actually the Traps-name version that was sort of given to "Poison Trap" by the forums back on Live from this description of the power... That's part of the description of the Traps version of the power as opposed to... Versus part of the description of the Poison version of the power. Granted, I think most people reading this know, but both powers are extremely different. It is really that silly and why I encourage an official name change even though I think most returning players keen on the sets know enough to not be confused. Would help new players or players new to either power-set.

Web Grenade: With the exception of a low level /Traps Controller proccing containment, I'd be hard pressed to find any kind of use of the power. That being said, it's a Tier 1 power and not every single power in the set has to be gold. You could potentially throw one small debuff on it like -acc -res etc... Caltrops: One of my personal favorite powers in the set. The fear it causes doesn't really scatter much because they are already slowed, so it adds some nice soft control. Damage is gravy and can take some decent procs. Triage Beacon: Others have recommended changing Triage Beacon into a Drone that follows the user. If this were the case, then I think it would be fine as is, but if it were to remain stationary, maybe give it some additional benefit like a small+res for all in the field. Acid Mortar: Suffers on fast moving teams, but I don't think that's a problem with the power itself. When you get the proper use out of it, it's a strong power. No change needed. Force Field Generator: Want to echo the statement of others that the Pet AI needs to follow at a faster pace and it could use a speed increase overall. This is actually a major issue with the set on one of the set's best powers. Poison Trap: Possibly a weird request, but I personally hate how this shares a name with Poison Trap from Poison and yet the powers are completely different. Would a name change be in order? One of the set's better powers. Seeker Drones: I think it's overrated personally, but I fully acknowledge that could just be me. I hear lots of praise for it. Trip Mine: Can set up some cheese if you are willing to spend a lot of time doing it. Would be nice to have a replacement, but if it were this or Time Bomb that had to go (not both), then I would keep this and replace Time Bomb. Again, not every power needs to be gold. I think keeping this for a power some may skip would be fine. Time Bomb: Seems like so much fun and has so much potential especially on Masterminds who blow up their pets, but it is so worthless. Unfortunately, I do think that if this power were too good, it could be a problem. Instead of adjusting values, I would replace it. I don't know if I like the idea of the Gun Drone that was suggested, but I also don't know what else I would replace it with. *shrugs*

I do exactly the same with one row on my inspirations.

I really wouldn't recommend Sonic Resonance based off of this. My main on live was a Sonic/Electric Defender and I think Sonic is probably the most passive of all the Defender primaries. Your only real active ability on Sonic Resonance is Sonic Siphon and to a much lesser extent Clarity and Liquefy. Clarity is generally something you want to throw around on mez-vulnerable targets on your teams as well as if you see someone actually get mezzed. It's nice to keep it active as much as possible, but it's not usually fully needed. Liquefy is nice, but has an extremely long cooldown and even with high recharge and a tricked out IO build, it's not gonna be a power you spam. Sonic Siphon is your only real active ability and it's nice to hit a key target with it for your allies to take them down faster, but it's not a game-changing power by any means. Beyond those abilities, everything you will be reliably using is a buff & forget or a toggle power. I'd go so far as to say even Force Field is more active if you use Repulsion Bomb and Force Bolt properly, but again, I wouldn't recommend that set either if you're looking for something active. It's just that, I earnestly believe Sonic Resonance is the most passive out of all Defender primaries. This can be a good thing if you want to focus more on your secondary and blast away, but if you are looking to be active in terms of your primary, I do urge you to look elsewhere. As far as healers not being needed. They aren't. That being said, Empathy is still one of the most played sets in the game and you will still see people looking for a "healer" in chat from time-to-time even on Homecoming. Out of these, and remembering what I said about Sonic Resonance, I would recommend you to try the Thermal/Sonic Defender. Thermal has a pbaoe heal, a single target heal, res shields (similar to Sonic minus the big bubble), a strong single target buff, two good enemy debuffs, + a rez & a mez protection ability if you want them. While I said Sonic primary wasn't especially active, Sonic secondary definitely is for Defenders. You want to keep blasting to debuff -res and make your allies do more dmg with each hit. So, that would be my personal vote. Also, I'm re-reading this and it makes it seem like I dislike Sonic Resonance, but I actually love the set. I just want to make you fully aware that Sonic plays pretty passively as a primary with many toggles and fire & forget buffs before you find yourself invested in it and bored of it at the same time.

If I remember correctly, on my very first lvl 50 on Live, I did take every single primary/secondary power. I was a Storm/Psychic Defender. This was back where Storm was still sort of rare. You'd see it on Controllers, but very few Defenders played it and this was before Villains. I originally took Gale as my first power because I told myself I would use it properly to reposition enemies and not just randomly spam Gale immediately on mobs like I would see /Storm controllers do in low level missions. Also wanted O2 for the mez protection and a heal if my group really needed it. Even though it isn't the greatest 'heal' power. Back then there were still many players attached to the notion of support = heals and I was worried they would be angry if I joined the group blindly and didn't have a heal. At this time, only FF didn't have a heal out of the Defender primary sets and people LOVED bubblers back then! So, I was really worried I would disappoint if I joined as a "Defender lfg" in chat and then I'm Storm with no heal. 🤷‍♂️ I guess I caved to pressure. Every other Storm power I unquestionably wanted. Back then most would skip Tornado, but admittedly, that was one of the powers I was most looking forward to. So, I didn't skip it at all. Got quite a lot of use out of it too. I'm surprised it wasn't very popular before KB > KD slotting tbh. If you used it in a cave or stupidly open hallway, that's on you, but there were plenty of warehouse, office, and other mishs where I could very easily find a corner to use it on and 'hold' a boss on lockdown. Was also free damage on AVs. I'm earnestly shocked it used to get such bad reviews from the community back then. If I were to do it all over again, the only power I'd possibly skip from Storm would be Thunder Clap. Very rarely seemed to work well and would sometimes get me killed turning off my Hurricane herding to go use it without knocking the mobs further than I wanted. As for my secondary, Psychic Blast tier 1 was probably one of the worst defender tier 1's back then. So, of course I wanted Subdue after being forced into Mental Blast. Took snipe for soloing. Psychic Scream I probably could have skipped because even though it was a great power in the set, it didn't mesh well with Storm and herding given the cone size, but I remember taking and trying to use it. TK Blast and Will Domination were ofc the better powers in the set. Psionic Tornado I had to take because I wanted two Tornado's. 🌪️🐄🏡🌪️ Yes, that was legit my only reasoning for it back then. Most people rated it as a skippable power. Scramble Thoughts I definitely could have skipped, but I clearly remember taking it in an effort to double down on Disorient mag and try to make Thunder Clap useful for bosses. Psychic Wail I also probably could have skipped back then because I didn't use my nuke often given the crash, but I wanted it for fun. That's the only character I ever took all powers for and even reading what I wrote, I'm regretting it haha, but it was fun back then and my first lvl 50.

You really just never ever want to engage a chat channel troll on an MMO. I don't think this is exclusive to CoH. In fact, I think Homecoming probably still has one of the better general/broadcast/LFG chats I've seen despite what happened to your daughter. If I may offer some advice, maybe consider muting general/broadcast chat for your children. If they play solo or duo with each other, maybe even mute LFG. I still think what happened is unfortunate, but tbh, most players experience a certain degree of toxicity in every online game. It really just can't be helped because no one has full control over the community. It's best to ignore it or move on immediately. Edit - Also, I've heard very good things about Everlasting. I personally play on Excelsior because I like the larger population size, but whenever someone is looking for a nice community, I usually hear Everlasting mentioned.

Tankers/Brutes don't do it for me, but I think that's just a personal playstyle preference in most games I play. I just have never been a fan of the tanking role. Outside of that personal preference, I don't think there is anything inherently off-putting about any of the ATs.